The development of new scientific knowledge in a region is imperative for the enhancement of regional independent innovation capacity. While extant studies have focused on the endogenous dynamics of regional scientific knowledge diversification, discussions on the role of external linkages are scarce and controversial. In this study, we incorporated external linkages into the relatedness-complexity framework and systematically investigated the impact of external linkages on the diversification of regional scientific knowledge and its heterogeneous characteristics. Based on the data of highly cited papers from CNKI, key research findings are as follows: 1) The scientific knowledge output of Chinese cities is characterized by the spatial feature of "large dispersion and small agglomeration", with municipalities and provincial capitals producing numerous highly cited papers. The entry of new scientific knowledge occurs more often in ordinary prefecture-level cities, and there is a spatial mismatch between the pattern of scientific knowledge introduction and production in cities. 2) The scientific knowledge base of most Chinese cities is characterized by "high-potential, high-quality" and "low-potential, low-quality" types. Cities with high potential for developing new scientific knowledge also possess scientific knowledge of higher complexity. The backbone network of China's urban scientific knowledge cooperation is characterized by a hierarchical structure. Only cities with high administrative levels, such as municipalities and provincial capitals, have numerous external knowledge linkages, while the external knowledge linkages of ordinary prefecture-level cities are characterized by preferential linkages or geographic proximity. 3) External linkages contribute significantly to regional scientific knowledge diversification, with the share of external linkages contributing to complexity diversification and hindering relatedness diversification, and the geographic diversity of external linkages contributing to relatedness diversification but hindering complexity diversification. 4) The impact of external linkages is characterized by heterogeneity in terms of network location and knowledge base dimensions. The scientific knowledge diversification in the network core region is positively influenced by an increase in geographic diversity of external linkages, while the network peripheral regions are positively influenced by an increase in the share of external linkages. The positive impact of geographic diversity of external linkages is more pronounced than the share of external linkages in the "high-potential, high-quality" regions, while the positive impact of geographic diversity of external linkages is less significant than the share of external linkages in the "low-potential, low-quality" regions. The findings provide policy implications for enhancing scientific knowledge innovation capacity in different regions of China by optimizing external linkages.

China's urban economic network is gradually transforming from a unipolar agglomeration to a polycentric and synergistic structure, driving dynamic adjustments in the interregional industrial division of labor. Revealing the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing mechanisms of advantageous industry overlap under this structural change holds significant theoretical and practical implications for promoting coordinated regional development. This study examined 275 prefecture-level and above cities in China for the years 2012, 2015, and 2017. Using intercity input-output data, it constructed the urban economic network and applied two novel indicators—directed alternative centrality (DAC) and directed alternative power (DAP)—to measure cities' positions within the network. Advantageous industry overlap was quantified through a supernetwork approach. The key findings are as follows: 1) Cities with high DAC and DAP were mainly concentrated in provincial capitals and municipalities with higher levels of economic development. Core cities had continuously strengthened their positions, while low-centrality cities had enhanced mutual connectivity, forming a differentiated network dominated by a few core cities but involving multi-tier linkages across the urban system. 2) The overlap of advantageous industries showed a gradually strengthening convergence effect over time, while spatially it presented a pattern of overall convergence with local divergence, characterized by persistent agglomeration and pronounced regional disparities. 3) Expanding disparities in cities' positions within the directed urban network, as measured by DAC and DAP, significantly reduced both the overlap of leading industries and overall industrial structure similarity, with heterogeneous effects across regions and between resource-based and non-resource-based cities. Further analysis revealed a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between network position disparities and advantageous industry overlap. This research examined the spatiotemporal change of urban network positions and advantageous industry overlap, while clarifying the mechanisms through which directed network status affects industrial convergence. The findings provide a theoretical support for optimizing regional industrial layouts and fostering polycentric and synergistic urban development.

China's excellent tourism cities are the core carriers of the country's tourism development, accounting for over 90% of the national total tourism economic output. They are not only concentrated areas of regional tourism resources and service capabilities but also important representatives of the overall regional image, playing a crucial exemplary and leading role in the development of the tourism industry. In recent years, against the backdrop of frequent global public health emergencies and complex economic fluctuations, tourism economic resilience has become a core topic in tourism research. This study collected relevant data on tourism development of 208 excellent tourism cities across China from 2003 to 2022, and further examined its influencing mechanism on the basis of measuring tourism economic resilience. The study found that the average value of tourism economic resilience of China's excellent tourism cities was generally greater than 0; LISA time path analysis indicated that some excellent tourism cities in the eastern region showed strong spatial dynamics of tourism economic resilience, while those in the central and western regions were relatively weak; the time path curvature was higher in economically developed areas, but lower in inland or late-developing areas. In the LISA spatiotemporal transition, 73.08% of the excellent tourism cities were in a state of self or neighborhood transition, which reflects that the tourism economic resilience of China's excellent tourism cities had significant dynamic change characteristics. Obstacle degree model analysis indicated that the number of students in institutions of higher education, employees in the tertiary industry, and the number of broadband users were the main obstacle factors that affect the tourism economic resilience of China's excellent tourism cities; there was also heterogeneity in the main influencing factors of tourism economic resilience among China's excellent tourism cities in different regions. Based on these conclusions, relevant recommendations for improving the tourism economic resilience of China's excellent tourism cities were put forward.

The industrial agglomeration of digital economy is an important support for promoting green technology innovation, which is of great strategic significance for realizing ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. Based on the data of digital economy enterprises in 78 prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2011 to 2022, this study used the kernel density estimation and location entropy methods, reciprocal of Herfindahl-Hirschman index, and the two-way fixed effect model to explore the temporal dynamics, spatial patterns, agglomeration characteristics of specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration, and their impact on green technology innovation. The results show that: 1) From 2011 to 2022, the number of digital economy enterprises in the Yellow River Basin increased from 36400 to 402100, an increase of about 10.05 times. 2) The spatial distribution of kernel density changed from single-core or dual-core to multi-cores in individual province. The lower reaches formed a contiguous development trend, and the middle and upper reaches showed a scattered distribution of high-value agglomeration areas. The regional differences between specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration of digital economy industry were significant, and the overall distribution was high in the east and low in the west. 3) The influence of specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration of digital economy industry on green technology innovation showed obvious heterogeneity. Specialized agglomeration had a positive effect on green technology innovation, while diversified agglomeration inhibited green technology innovation in the basin to a certain extent, and there were significant differences in the upstream, midstream, and downstream industries. Based on these results, corresponding countermeasures and recommendations were put forward from the aspects of infrastructure development, industrial planning and layout, and regional cooperation, in order to promote the deep integration of digital economy industry and green technology innovation, and help the high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.

In the context of global sustainable development and ecological civilization construction, the integration of ecological protection and people's well-being has gradually become a key focus of attention both in China and internationally. In particular, the Yellow River Basin in China, as an important ecological security barrier and economic zone, faces the dual pressure of balancing ecological protection and economic development. Ecological well-being performance is a comprehensive index to evaluate ecological protection and people's well-being. Improving ecological well-being performance is an objective requirement for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Based on the reconstruction of an ecological well-being performance evaluation indicator system, this study used the Super-EBM model considering the undesirable outputs to quantitatively measure ecological well-being performance in the Yellow River Basin during 2005-2022, and used kernel density analysis and exploratory spatial data analysis methods to describe the characteristics of change of the spatial and temporal patterns of ecological well-being performance in the region. Finally, the fsQCA method was used to analyze the configuration mechanism of ecological well-being performance. The findings are as follows: 1) During the research period, the ecological well-being performance of the Yellow River Basin generally showed a continuous upward trend, but regional differences were significant, presenting a multi-level differentiation trend and complex evolution characteristics. 2) The ecological well-being performance in the Yellow River Basin presents a staged pattern of high in the east and low in the west, and high in the south and low in the north. The positive spatial autocorrelation has been enhanced, and the spatial disequilibrium and spatial agglomeration characteristics are significant. 3) In terms of configuration mechanism, three driving mechanisms can be identified: single dominance type, dual interaction type, and multiple cooperation type. Two limiting mechanisms exist: digital technology-science and technology deficiency type, and science and technology-environmental regulation deficiency type. The research results can provide a scientific reference for promoting regional ecological well-being performance.

Rural development is currently undergoing a pivotal shift from a resource-dependent model to one driven by innovation. The rural-urban reverse population flows have become a key factor in addressing the long-standing challenges of rural innovation and development. Using the input-support-output rural innovation efficiency framework, along with the moderating effect and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) methods, we analyzed the change of spatial pattern of rural-urban reverse population flows and rural innovation efficiency of 27 administrative villages in Luotuoao Town, Hubei Province—a typical rural-urban reverse population flow area—from 2018 to 2020. We also explored the impact of the rural-urban reverse population flows on rural innovation. The results show that: 1) The innovation level and the distribution of the rural-urban reverse population flow in each village of Luotuoao Town exhibited significant spatial imbalances, with some spatial correlation. 2) The counterflow population between urban and rural areas played a significant role in enhancing innovation in rural areas. It exerted the greatest influence on innovation input, with a spatial distribution characterized by a dual-core architecture and gradual reduction. 3) The impact of rural-urban reverse population flows on rural innovation is influenced by various factors and shows regional variation. Industrial structure, agricultural cooperatives, and nighttime light intensity all have positive effects. Additionally, low-altitude areas with dense road networks facilitate the flow and application of innovation resources, thereby boosting the innovation capacity of reverse migration populations. This study offers a theoretical support for building a sustainable mechanism to attract and retain rural talents.

Although ecological villages in the suburbs of metropolis can promote development by virtue of the spillover effect of the central urban area and the advantages of ecological landscape resources, they are faced with development bottlenecks such as hollowing out and limited transformation of ecological values due to the siphon effect and ecological controls. Taking Chayuan Village, an ecological village in Hubei Province in 2023, as an example, this study analyzed the characteristics and internal mechanisms of spatial transformation of ecological villages in metropolitan suburbs by using the embeddedness theory. The study found that: 1) Constructing a theoretical analysis framework from the four dimensions of structural embeddedness, relational embeddedness, institutional embeddedness, and cultural embeddedness can lay a foundation for analyzing the internal mechanisms of rural spatial transformation under the interaction of social system and agents. 2) The remarkable characteristics of rural spatial transformation are embodied in the orderly expansion of material space, the compound function of economic space, the pluralistic and open social space, and the richness and co-creation of cultural space. 3) With regard to the rural space transformation mechanisms, the position of the village in the social network, the connection strength of social relations, the intervention strength of the policy system, and the cultural and ideological situation of village residents deeply affect the process of rural space transformation. The modernization of village material space and the traditionalization of economic space and ideas coexist in the initial exploration stage under the weak relationship embedding. The upgrading of rural space in the slow development stage under the strong system embedding was limited, and the rural space transformation in the structural reorganization stage under the multiple embedding coordination has achieved some success. The research on the characteristics and mechanisms of ecological village spatial transformation in metropolitan suburbs is helpful for promoting their high-quality development.

As a typical social-ecological system, agricultural heritage sites are a spatial field with the participation and interaction of multiple subjects. Along with the process of urban-rural integration, their traditional production function space is undergoing a significant functional transformation. Promoting multi-subject participation and in-depth cooperation has become the key to driving the spatial renewal of agricultural heritage sites. By integrating the organizational embeddedness theory and social connection theory, this study constructed an analytical framework for the spatial renewal of agricultural heritage sites, and analyzed the processes and mechanisms of cooperation between internal and external subjects driven by the cooperative through the practice of the Xinglongwa Millet Ecological Cultivation Cooperative in Aohan County, Inner Mongolia. The study found that: 1) The cooperative first promoted the initial cooperation of subjects through the mobilization of goal matching, action synergy, and continuous input, and promoted the spatial function transformation of the heritage site. 2) Relying on the connection mechanism of politics, interests, emotions, and responsibilities, the cooperative connected multiple subjects for in-depth cooperation and strengthened the effectiveness of their participation in the protection of agricultural heritage and the governance of heritage sites. 3) The organizational embeddedness and social connection jointly promoted the gradual renewal of the physical, economic, social, and tourism space of the agricultural heritage site, and the locality of the space of the heritage site entered the stage of co-creation by multiple subjects. The results of the study can help transform the institutional advantages of collective economy such as cooperatives into practical effectiveness, and facilitate the high-quality development of agricultural heritage sites.

Accurately assessing the level of human development in cities is of critical importance for advancing people-centered urbanization and achieving the goal of common prosperity. This study extended the framework of the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) by incorporating two additional dimensions-low-carbon development and social equity-to construct a Spatial Human Development Index (SHDI) that captures spatial dependencies. Using a Bayesian spatial factor model, the SHDI was estimated for 279 prefecture-level and above cities in China over the period 2010-2020, effectively addressing spatial endogeneity. Furthermore, the Theil index and its two-stage nested decomposition were employed to analyze the characteristics and sources of regional disparities. The results show that: 1) Although the SHDI shared a similar overall trend with the traditional HDI, it differed significantly in indicator weighting and city rankings, and demonstrated stronger sensitivity in distinguishing differences among cities with medium to low levels of development. 2) SHDI exhibited a phased pattern of spatial divergence, with regional disparities following a convergence-then-divergence trajectory, and intra-provincial differences emerging as the dominant source of imbalance. This study provides a methodological innovation for multidimensional, spatially-explicit measurement of urban human development and offers empirical tools and policy insights for promoting high-quality urban development and regional coordination.

Biomedical industrial parks are an important policy tool for the government to promote the high-quality development of the biomedical industry. Most existing studies on the layout of industrial parks focused on aspects such as global production networks at distance or resource allocation within local administrative boundaries, with insufficient attention to the impact of network externalities in regional integration. Borrowed size, as an important manifestation of network externalities, provides a new perspective to break through the limitations of existing research on industrial park layout that does not fully consider regional collaboration. Therefore, based on the theory of borrowed size for network externalities, this study selected biomedical industry function, medical financial services, biomedical talent supply, and medical facility services as core considerations for borrowed functions, and regional economic level and biomedical innovation environment as core considerations for borrowed performance, according to the two dimensions of borrowed function and borrowed performance. It constructed an analytical framework for the layout of biomedical industrial parks at the district (county) scale and empirically tested the framework within the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. First, this study divided biomedical enterprises into three types based on industry segmentation—pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical services, and medical devices. It further categorized biomedical industrial parks into four types based on the proportion of enterprise numbers: pharmaceutical manufacturing-led, medical services-led, medical devices-led, and comprehensive biomedical. Combining multi-source data, the weighted average travel time method and the standard deviation from the mean method were used to measure borrowed functions and test borrowed performance, respectively. Through linear fitting of enterprise numbers and borrowed size, the core factors of enterprise location choice were evaluated, thereby identifying the saturation state of enterprises in districts and counties. Finally, this study proposed layout optimization suggestions and policy recommendations for different types of biomedical industrial parks. The study found that: 1) The spatial distribution of biomedical industrial parks in the Pearl River Delta presented a core-periphery structure with Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the dual cores. 2) The local foundation and spatial distribution of borrowed size for various factors exhibited heterogeneity. The local industrial foundation was the primary driving force for attracting enterprises to settle in, while borrowed size served as a supplementary development impetus, evident in some economically developed core urban areas but not fully utilized in some non-core regions. 3) Based on the classification of industrial parks, layout optimization strategies and policy recommendations were proposed for the four types of biomedical industrial parks at four levels: priority recommendation, general recommendation, relatively not recommended, and not recommended. This study incorporated borrowed size into the consideration framework of industrial park layout, enabling a more comprehensive evaluation of the development potential of industrial parks. It provides optimization suggestions for the government's layout of biomedical industrial parks in the Pearl River Delta and offers methodological references for the layout of other high-tech industrial parks in China.

The development of today's new energy system has prompted resource-rich regions abundant in both traditional and new energy sources to prioritize technological innovation as the key to upgrading and transforming their regional energy industries, but the existing research lacks a comparison of the spatial and temporal change of technological innovation between traditional energy and emerging energy industries. In this study, taking western Jilin Province, which has developed both the traditional petroleum industry and emerging wind power industry, as an example, we analyzed the technological innovation output, agglomeration pattern, and spatial linkage characteristics of the two types of energy industries from the perspective of industrial chain division, and explored the spatial and temporal change paths of technological innovation and their differences. The study found that: 1) The technological innovation activities of the petroleum industry are concentrated in the upstream exploration and exploitation links, the innovation density is decreasing, and the spatial agglomeration shows a mono-core polarization at the crude oil producing areas. The proportion of technical cooperation shows an inverted "U" shape, and the center of gravity of cooperation alternates between intra- and interterritorial, with intraterritorial cooperation centering around the oil resource-intensive Ningjiang District, and interterritorial cooperation gradually expanding from the three eastern provinces to the south. 2) Technological innovation activities in the wind power industry break through a single industry chain link, innovation density continues to grow, and the agglomeration pattern evolves towards multiple cores in wind energy rich areas. Technological cooperation is dominated by interterritorial links and steadily enhanced, the interterritorial cooperation mainly involves Changchun City in Northeast China and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing area, and the intraterritorial links between Songyuan City and Baicheng City have always been competitive than cooperative. 3) The spatial and temporal change paths of technological innovation in the petroleum and wind power industries are subject to the joint action of multiple factors, and their performances are different. The petroleum industry tends to be "endogenously driven", while the wind power industry is "exogenously supported". Based on the research findings, this paper offers differentiated guidance recommendations for technological innovation in two types of industries in western Jilin Province, aiming to provide reference and insights for the green transformation of the energy sector in such resource-based regions.

The protection of traditional villages is a topic of common interest to all sectors of society today, and it has been highly valued by the communist party and the government of China. However, due to the late start of the protection of traditional Chinese villages, relevant theories in the context of Western culture are often used for reference. The current practice of traditional village protection is based on the theory of heritage protection and landscape genes, which fails to fully grasp the multi-dimensional characteristics of traditional villages, and leads to the emergence of contradictions and conflicts in the protection and utilization of traditional villages. On the other hand, the place theory as an assemblage can provide a new perspective for the theoretical and practical research of traditional village protection. Taking Chengkan Village in Huizhou District of Anhui Province as an example, this study used literature research and field investigation methods to show that traditional villages, as a multiple assembly of rural settlements, cultural heritage, and tourism resources, are generated by the interaction of heterogeneous elements such as material components, expression components, and territorial forms. In this process, the vertical connection of the place is as important as the horizontal connection, especially the existence of the geographical environment, location conditions, and history and culture of the village itself is still meaningful from the perspective of traditional village assembly. Our case analysis further showed that the protection of traditional villages is a protection of the dotted history of specific periods, focusing on the physical landscape and visual appearance, while relatively ignoring the reconstruction and inheritance of the "invisible landscape". This study effectively expanded the case study of the place assemblage theory in rural areas, and demonstrated the insightfulness of the theory for the analysis of the interaction mechanism of heterogeneous elements in different time and space of traditional villages, which is helpful for deepening the theoretical interpretation and mechanism analysis of traditional village protection, and highlights the relational, holistic, and dynamic nature of traditional village protection practices. The analysis of the case of Chengkan Village showed that the application of the place assemblage theory should be carried out with a relatively clear non-human subject, which is helpful for clarifying the process from the relevance of non-human subjects, and the process refers to when, where, and how the elements are added to the assemblage.

The sense of belonging to a place and its influencing factors are important topics in urban and social geography research. The sense of belonging to a place has spatial scale characteristics. Although existing studies have revealed differences across scales, but the comparison of belongingness at the community and city levels remains insufficient. For migrant populations, the sense of belonging at both the community and city levels represents a key psychological marker of social integration and is an indicator of their incorporation into the host city. Nevertheless, migrant populations face the problem of residence and relocation in big cities, which makes it difficult for them to establish a sense of psychological belonging to their residential communities and cities. Investigating the sense of belonging from the perspective of residential mobility offers valuable insights that can contribute to promoting social integration and achieving the goal of people-oriented urbanization. This study examined the impact of residential relocation on community and city belongingness among various household registration groups, drawing on a survey of suburban residents' travel and behavior in Shanghai. The study found that: 1) Residents generally rate their sense of belonging to the city higher than their immediate community. However, notably, both community and city belongingness are significantly lower among the migrant population than among local residents. 2) Housing ownership, residential location change, and the reason for relocation impacted the community and city belongingness and were significantly different. Continuous renting decreases city belongingness. Relocating from other regions correlates with high community belongingness, but this does not necessarily enhance city belongingness. Furthermore, relocation due to convenience is not necessarily conducive to community belongingness. 3) The effects of residential relocation on community and city belongingness vary by household registration groups. Local residents tended to exhibit a "positive accumulation" characteristic in residential relocations, where meeting their relocation needs leads to an increased sense of belonging. In contrast, the migrant population requires "compensatory" factors (such as social networks and low-cost housing) to gain a sense of belonging. It is more susceptible to negative impacts brought about by demolition and resettlement. 4) Community belongingness is more heavily influenced by the quality of the community environment, while city belongingness is more strongly affected by personal and family socioeconomic attributes.

Currently, global Fintech innovation has become a core area of financial competition among countries. Based on the Orbis global intellectual property database, this study analyzed the development trends of global Fintech innovation from 1962 to 2022 and compared the technological knowledge capabilities between China and traditional financial powerhouses such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The findings are as follows: 1) From 1962 to 2022, there has been a significant increase in both the quantity and knowledge diversity of Fintech patents, accompanied by deepening integration with five major technological categories: "electronic information technology", "big data", "mobile Internet", "blockchain", and "artificial intelligence". Also, the integration among different types of technological innovations continued to intensify. 2) In terms of the application of technological knowledge in Fintech, traditional financial countries had a clear advantage in the field of electronic information technology, while China has excelled in big data and mobile Internet, driving the widespread adoption of digital payments and smart financial platforms. Moreover, China dominates in multiple key technological fields such as electronic information technology, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. However, China's application capabilities in financial services remain relatively weak, representing a key area for future improvement in its Fintech development. In terms of Fintech technological knowledge combinations, China and the United States exhibited the strongest knowledge integration in information technology, with notable competitive strength in the combined innovations of biometric technology with e-commerce and electronic payments. 3) Traditional financial countries maintain a high degree of similarity in their technological knowledge application and integration capabilities, while significant differences exist between China and these countries. Based on the conclusions of this study, China not only needs to focus on technological breakthroughs in emerging fields such as blockchain and artificial intelligence but can also deepen international cooperation to achieve collaborative breakthroughs in common technological challenges. By establishing strategic partnerships and knowledge sharing, China can accelerate its innovation capabilities and contribute to the global development of Fintech.

Development zones serve as core carriers of industrial agglomeration and are important engines of regional economic growth. However, during their transformation and upgrading, they often encounter challenges such as industrial homogeneity and blind competition. To address these issues, it is essential to actively respond to policy initiatives that aim to build a symbiotic and complementary industrial system in development zones and foster positive interactions among them. This study focused on 97 national-level development zones in the Yangtze River Delta region and, based on the theory of technology interaction, employed technology complementarity and competition index, social network analysis, and quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) methods to analyze the change and influencing factors of technology interaction from 1985 to 2021. The findings indicate that: 1) The technology interaction in the national-level development zones in the Yangtze River Delta region has gone through three stages—fluctuation at a low level, differentiated growth and decline, and synchronous growth—and presented a dynamic change process from competition and complementarity to technology complementarity. 2) The trends in technology interaction between national-level economic development zones and high-tech zones were generally similar, but the latter exhibited a higher intensity of interaction. 3) As the technology interaction network matures, the technology complementarity network has evolved into a "multi-core, multi-level, and wide-coverage" diamond-shaped structure, with increasingly close connections among the communities, while the technology competition network presents a decentralized "multi-point blossoming" pattern. 4) In the early stage, technology interaction was significantly influenced by administrative boundaries and hierarchical differences between cities. In the middle of the development stage, cross-regional cooperation emerged, and the impact of urban hierarchy increased. In the later stage, geographical proximity and industrial structure similarity became the primary drivers, reflecting a shift from government-led, city connection-dependent to market-driven, self-initiated cooperation. This study expands the theoretical boundaries of technology interaction, further deepens the research progress of coordinated development of development zones, and provides a contribution of knowledge based on the fundamental structure of technology elements.

Exploring the way to implement differentiated strategies according to the development characteristics of different types of urbanization is the key theoretical and practical problem for realizing the sustainable and healthy development of China's new urbanization. Based on the census data of 2010 and 2020, this study identified five types of urbanization of the population in the West Taiwan Strait urban agglomeration, including the local urbanization type, the in-situ urbanization type, the nearby urbanization type, the inter-provincial urbanization type, and the undetermined registered residence urbanization type, starting from the household registration and current residence of the population and the definition of "urban" in the urban-rural division. The ESTDA exploratory spatial-temporal data analysis and spatial Durbin model were used to explore the spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of each type of urbanization. The results show that: 1) With regard to the spatial distribution, all urbanization types exhibited a macro-level pattern characterized by either overall improvement or gradient diffusion. Specifically, the in-situ urbanization type and the local urbanization type demonstrated significant advancement in overall levels during the study period. Meanwhile, the nearby urbanization type, the inter-provincial urbanization type, and the undetermined registered residence urbanization type manifested gradient diffusion distributions. These formed distinct spatial patterns: the in-situ urbanization type diffused radially from prefectural-level city cores; the local urbanization type exhibited a coastal-to-inland decreasing gradient; while the inter-provincial urbanization type and the undetermined registered residence urbanization type showed concentrated coastal agglomeration with dispersed inland distribution. 2) In terms of the spatial-temporal evolution, significant spatial autocorrelation persisted across all urbanization types, with overall agglomeration features remaining stable yet undergoing notable shifts. The high-high cluster region of the in-situ urbanization type expanded from the Chaoshan area to establish a dual-core structure encompassing Chaoshan and Shangrao. Concurrently, the primary high-high cluster zone of the local urbanization type shifted westward. For the nearby urbanization type, the inter-provincial urbanization type, and the undetermined registered residence urbanization type, their low-low clusters coalesced into a contiguous belt along the Fujian-Jiangxi border, whereas their respective high-high clusters maintained strong coastal concentration. 3) With regard to the driving mechanisms, the spatial framework was initially established by natural geographical conditions. Historically evolved clustered sociocultural networks further facilitated diversified urbanization pathways. Governmental influence operated through dual channels: direct intervention via open policies, the household registration system, administrative division adjustments, and urban-rural demarcation; and indirect steering through regulatory control over economic development, social factors, and spatial planning elements.

Under the background of population decline, the number of cities in China with shrinking urban population continues to increase, posing challenges to the allocation of urban construction land resources. This study, based on multi-source population and land use data and taking Northeast China as a case example, constructed a hierarchical constraint plus multi-scenario simulation forecasting method to predict urban population changes from 2020 to 2035. It further identified construction land development risks from the perspectives of "static coordination" and "dynamic adaptation", proposing ideas for optimized land allocation. The study found that: 1) Urban population forecasts reveal a continued decline in Northeast China, with a growing number and intensifying severity of shrinking cities. The spatial pattern exhibits a clear "core growth-peripheral shrinkage" characteristic, with resource-based and old-industrial cities facing particularly severe shrinkage. 2) Urban population changes show diverse types, with differentiated pressures on land allocation transformation, dominated by "deepening shrinkage" and "falling into shrinkage" types, and significant interprovincial differences. 3) The region is characterized mainly by "static scale redundancy" and "insufficient dynamic adaptation" in the human-land relationship, with widespread redundancy in prefecture-level cities' construction land and most cities still following expansion-based land allocation patterns at the baseline period. 4) Risk identification of construction land highlights deep-seated conflicts; different levels of land allocation risks exist in 30 shrinking cities. High-risk cities form a "land-asset decline cycle" and urgently need to explore "value pathways" within "land reduction". By constructing a systematic logical framework linking population forecasting and land use risk, this study innovated population prediction methods and provided a comprehensive diagnosis of land use risks, offering valuable exploration for guiding optimized construction land allocation in shrinking cities.

Exploring innovative paths and models for rural revitalization and development transformation through the participation of multiple agents has become a core focus of rural geography in response to national strategic demands in China. Drawing upon the symbiosis theory and taking Gengche Town in Suqian City of Jiangsu Province as a case study, this study examined the mechanism by which stakeholders establish and maintain symbiotic relationships to jointly advance rural transformation and development. The findings indicate that the central government, local governments, and local actors—represented primarily by rural elites—constitute the fundamental symbiotic units in the rural transformation symbiotic system. Among them, the central government is responsible for strategic planning, local governments for policy experimentation and implementation, while rural elites and residents act as the driving force for transformation through bottom-up entrepreneurial activities. Rural transformation is embedded in a symbiotic environment characterized by multi-scalar linkages of macro-intermediate-endogenous elements. Shifts in national strategies and the rise of e-commerce economy provide the macro external context for transformation, whereas the social networks of rural acquaintances and the collaborative atmosphere among online entrepreneurs form the endogenous environment. Local governments serve as intermediaries between the national and rural scales, coordinating the interests of all parties and facilitating resource integration. Given the differences in interests, resources, and capabilities among the symbiotic units, they have developed symbiotic models such as mutual benefit, complementarity, and mutual assistance to bridge these gaps and enhance symbiotic effect.

Under the strategy of ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, the implementation of residential relocation projects is an inevitable choice to comprehensively promote high-quality development and rural revitalization in the Yellow River beach area. Based on the theories of human-environment relationship and regional high-quality development, this study used quantitative analysis methods such as a multi-factor comprehensive evaluation model and geographical detectors, combined with field research and text analysis, to investigate the spatial characteristics and driving mechanisms of residential relocation in the Yellow River beach area of Henan Province. The results show that: 1) There are significant spatial differences and hierarchical differentiation in the driving forces for residential relocation in the beach area, with higher driving forces concentrated in the central area and higher resistance mainly distributed on the eastern side. 2) The overall tendency for residential relocation in the beach area is mainly at medium to high levels, but there are significant differences among counties (districts), exhibiting a "centralized" spatial distribution pattern with Zhengzhou as the "center". 3) The two-dimensional mapping analysis result shows that residents of 53.85% of the counties (districts) in the beach area are still in a state of low-level driving and resistance for relocation. This low-level development status may increase the risk of residential relocation driving factor identification, especially for resistance factors, thereby posing significant uncertainty and potential challenges to the effectiveness of residential relocation in the beach area. 4) The spatial characteristics of the driving forces for residential relocation in the beach area are the result of the mutual influence and combined action of various impact factors, with income levels, geographical location, policy support, and individual factors being the primary driving factors. The research results can provide scientific references for the differentiated formulation and precise implementation of relocation policies for residents in the Yellow River beach area, as well as for the assessment of relocation risks.

The reconstruction of rural living spaces is a profound aspect of building livable, business-friendly, and beautiful villages, and examining its process is of great significance. Taking tourism gentrification as the entry point and based on Bourdieu's field theory, this study constructed an analysis framework of "rural living space field structure-transformation mechanism deconstruction". Using Shiwei Village in Eerguna City, Inner Mongolia as an example, this study systematically analyzed the reconstruction of rural living spaces and its mechanisms during the process of tourism gentrification. The study found that: 1) Tourism gentrification in Shiwei Village showed distinct temporal and spatial characteristics, having gone through the embryonic stage, the primary stage, and the development stage, transforming from the original field to a tourism field. 2) Rural living space is a field, and based on the daily behavioral activities of residents, four sub-fields—residence, consumption, employment, and social interaction—can be derived. Therefore, a four-element analytical framework for the reconstruction of rural living spaces was constructed and its reconstruction characteristics were analyzed. 3) The rural living space field is full of competitions and games among different actors. Within the field, "power-capital-habit" interact with each other, based on which we deconstructed the transformation mechanism of the living space field in Shiwei Village. The study aimed to deepen rural living space studies from a theoretical perspective. It is not only an exploration of applying field theory in the field of geography, but also provides a new analytical framework for the reconstruction of rural living spaces and the clarification of the complex problems and mechanisms behind it.